Wednesday Weigh-In Week 3

What did I say last week about making sure I posted more often than Wednesday....

In all fairness I do have at least two open drafts about a sentence long, writers blook took me down when I had time to write, which wasn't very often.

After week 1 of tracking my food intake online, I am more aware and slightly appalled by my diet. I will keep using the tracker at the daily plate. (Anyone else using one? Do you like it? Why?)

• Starting weight December 29, 2008: 236 lbs.
• Overall Goal weight: 140 lbs.
• Weight last week: 230 lbs.
• Weight today: 230lbs
• Amount lost this week:0 lb

Causes: I am not exactly sure, I did step up the cardio training a bit and feel my pants are looser so that seems good, maybe I gained a slight amount of muscle mass, it does weigh more than fat.
I am going to start tracking my measurements weekly to quantify if I am really getting smaller, rather than just relying on the weight number. Haven't decided to post that. Why? I don't know maybe you know enough about me.... Those that do, do you think it helps? Although I suppose if I get lost, my husband can read my blog and give a great description of me...

Excercise Goal: Aerobic exercise three times a week (full half hour), Strenghth/Yoga three times a week (at least 15 minutes.)

Food Goal: More veggies and fruits, lean meats. Main goal is to not count my exercise against my daily caloric intake. (Ie. subtracting calories for exercising and seeing if that helps me reach my 2 pound loss this week.)

Blogging goal: A tour of my town... and maybe a post about this weeks current events. One one Friday and one on Monday.

Now I am off to study and clean...

Wednesday Weigh In Week Two

I feel the need to remind myself not to let this blog only be about the weigh in. I really intended to get a post up earlier in the week. So maybe I should have started that on Friday or Saturday...

This weeks Weigh in Results....

• Starting weight December 29, 2008: 236 lbs.
• Overall Goal weight: 140 lbs.
• Weight last week: 231 lbs.
• Weight today: 230lbs
• Amount lost this week: 1 lb

Interesting thing about the single pound loss. Since I am using the Wii Fit as my weigh in tool and it encourages you to weigh in every day, I had a spike on Sunday where I showed a weight gain of 3.3 pounds. While I know a persons weight can fluctuate a couple of pounds during the course of a day, that is still high. Truth be told, I think it was the greasy hamburger I had for lunch on Friday, then the Pizza Buffett later on that evening and Saturday was really no better. We had Mexican for lunch and I don't recall what for dinner, but it probably wasn't healthy.

I know for some people weighing themselves every day and watching that spike go up might cause them to give up. Quite honestly a few years ago that might have been the case with me. However I think for me at this point in my life seeing a real time translation of what happens when I don't make the best food choices is a positive thing. Knowing I need to step up the exercise at that point, and kidding myself that my choices weren't really that bad won't fly anymore.

So to that end, while I haven't obviously been restricting my food intake, I was trying to keep a running total in my head of how many calories I have been ingesting. Monday while wondering just how many calories were in that sandwich at Subway, I decided to google it and found a nice tracking tool. It is called the Daily Plate and while at this point I am not necessarily making huge diet changes, I can know just how many calories I ate. So my goal this week is to keep exercising, track my food every day and then next week I will make some meal adjustments.

Wii are Unbalanced and Exercising

I think I mentioned that Santa left me a Wii Fit for Christmas. Some might want to slap Santa at the presumption of giving that kind of gift. Just for the record, I told Santa I couldn't decide which I wanted more the Wii Fit or Guitar Hero. Seeing how Santa is a professional musician, who does play bass, I thought I had a better chance of winning on Wii Fit.

What I didn't realize was the the balance board not only lets you snowboard, but it also weighs you. I know, kinda sucks the fun right out of a present, doesn't it. Especially when after entering my info it informs me my BMI is 1 gabillion. Yes that is a real number, I think. Okay let's face it I knew my weight was an issue, I wasn't surprised when the balance board informed me I was obese and transformed my Mii from a skinny likeness of me to an almost mirror image where my belly was hanging out of my shirt. Isn't the point of a video game to escape reality?

Undaunted I continued on and was given my first Wii Fit Age, 48 a mere 13 years older than my actual age. Ouch. Then I played my first game. I went for the Balance games thinking they would be easy. After several attempts to head soccer balls I was told I was unbalanced. Who me? How did it know? I thought I hid it well.

All joking aside, I had already decided that I had to get serious about getting some more exercises and losing weight, before Christmas. I didn't research the Wii Fit as an exercise tool, and when someone wondered why in the world one would need a game to do yoga, I had no answer. However after playing with it for a couple of weeks this is my review so far.

Likes:

• I am having fun.

• It tracks your exercise, weight and graphs it. You can even add time spent on exercised not done on the Wii Fit.

• I am competitive so getting keeping the high score is important to me and it motivates me.

• Unlike going to a class, I can do it when I have time and don't have to worry about my appearance. However it can be played in a group so, I can take my board and go play somewhere else.

• Since it measures how much pressure you are putting on your feet or hands, I feel as though I am possibly doing the exercise right, unlike when watching a video.

• You have to play to keep unlocking more exercises or games.

• I actually worked up a sweat doing the aerobic games.
  

• It had me set a goal weight and it told me I had too much too soon, and gave me sugestions about resetting it to something healthier.

Dislikes:

• Right now the only thing that I really don't like is that I would like to program a set of exercises and move through them without stopping to punch the buttons. Maybe there is a way to do that I just haven't found yet.

Reality:

• Right now I am in the heady days of playing with a new toy, will it be a tool I use long term? Or will it join the guitar in my closet? Who knows, I hope to keep with it, to that end I am going to make myself accountable here as well. I am going to start participating in Blog to Fit as an additional motivational tool.
• I haven't made any major diet changes except to measure out what I am eating and be aware of appropriate portion size.
  

So here goes it internets.... I hate to do this, I am totally going to close my eyes when I hit the publish button.

Starting Weight 12/29/08 236 lb

Last week: 234 lb

This week: 231 lb

Pounds lost (or gained): 5 total 3 this week

How many pounds left to lose: 15 for my current goal on Wii Fit but I would like to get down to 160.

Getting Back in the Saddle Again

Writing even when you don't feel like it was the title of Bird's latest post and quite frankly it home with me. There has been that little nagging voice in my head reminding me that I need to update, but you know nothing was really moving me toward a cohesive post. So here is what you get...

Christmas recap:
Excellent, relaxing 6 full days at the mother-in-laws house up in the mountains. It snowed the day after Christmas, and I always enjoy that. Mostly I enjoy the more relaxed pace at my MIL's house, my sister in law and her two kids were in and out, they live near by. My lovely neice and nephew are 15 and 13 respectively and my kids cannot get enough of their cousins and leave me alone to do as I will for long periods of time. I am thinking I need to see them more often. We got a Wii for Christmas thanks to winning some money back in October and Santa left me a wii fit to go with it. I love it despite the fact it informed me I am obese and unbalanced. I am sure several people I know would tell me that for free. ; )

Auld Acquaintances forgot:
I got sick on the return home with a cold and the 31st was one of those days where you put one foot in front other and do what needs to be done, but no more. We had a party to go to that I really hated to miss, but we did. Lame as it sounds I snored in the new year, but I am sure I toasted everyone in my dreams.

Going to the dogs...
It has been a bit of a readjustment for Rigby since we left them at my parents while we were gone. We got a large crate and she is taking to it well to sleep in it at night. I do need to research or find a good reference about dog training, especially since I suspect she was abused by the way she cowers and hides so much. However she is good natured with the kids but just still kind of wary. Every day is better, in fact today she is downright playful and acting like a normal pup.

The best laid excuses...
I had a Christmas post I was workin on, but the computer and I weren't get along that day and we were trying to leave town. Then the MIL only has dial up and it is slow slow slow. I did get on and check my email once or twice and update FB status, however I was too busy relaxing to try to put a post up, I am sure it would have ruined my tranquility. Then I get a head cold and you don't want posts under the unfluence of snot do you? That's right you are welcome.

Say that again Sam....
I love all the juicy stuff the kids say during the down time... like when I commented to Zachary (6) about his eyes looking tired, the asked me if he had wal-mart bags under his eyes. Or Max (3) who was scarfing down enchiladas that his grandfather madie who declared all I needed to do was love him and feed him enchiladas.